Loyola (Chicago) a modern-day NC State? One member of 1983 champs thinks so: 'I see a lot of us in them'

SportsPulse: Can Loyola-Chicago make history by beating a stacked Michigan squad? USA TODAY Sports’ Scott Gleeson says the Ramblers have a very real chance to.
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This 1983 photo shows North Carolina State's Terry Gannon helping cut down the nets following the Wolfpack's ACC Tournament Championship game in Atlanta, Ga. Gannon, in town to do play-by-play for the Golf Channel, shared his memories of what it was like to be on that NCAA championship team.(Photo: The Associated Press)

Multiple miracle finishes to start the tournament. An underdog team capturing the nation's attention. Entering the Final Four with a belief they can beat anyone.

That's a description of the current Loyola (Chicago) Ramblers, but it could also be said of the famed North Carolina State team of 1983. They had Jim Valvano, a team concept, and showed no fear. Loyola has all the same stuff, but replace Valvano with Sister Jean.

True, the Wolfpack were from a power conference, but other than that, there are a lot of similarities between the two teams.

And that's coming from someone who knows, Terry Gannon, the current Golf Channel play-by-play man, who was a member of that N.C. State team that took down the No. 1-ranked Houston team with Clyde Drexler and Akeem Olajuwon in the memorable 1983 final.

"I mean we were just like them, about to lose in the first round," Gannon said Wednesday while preparing to call the first LPGA major of the year, the ANA Inspiration in Rancho Mirage, California. "We were down four with 50 seconds left to Pepperdine in the opening round, and their best free throw shooter was at the line. I remember looking up at the scoreboard and thinking 'It's been fun, but I guess I gotta go back to history class tomorrow.'"

But N.C. State rallied to win that game 69-67 over Pepperdine, and then beat UNLV 71-70 in the second round. After a rout of Utah, it was another nail-biter, a 63-62 win over Virginia to make the Final Four. Loyola has traveled almost the exact same path with two one-point wins, a two-pointer and a blowout.

Terry Gannon (right) and Judy Rankin pair up to work during a Golf Channel broadcast. Gannon is the lead play-by-play guy for the Golf Channel.(Photo: Scott Halleran, Getty Images Courtesy of Golf Channel)

"Just like Loyola, we pulled out that opener, then pulled off another escape against UNLV in the second round, and so we pulled off miracle after miracle and just started to believe that we would do it some how," Gannon said. "And I think they're very much like that, just thinking, let's play and we'll figure out a way to win. And now as the upset team of the tournament, sharing the ball and having a blast on the ride to the Final Four. That was us. I see a lot of us in them."

The rest of that N.C. State season is now the stuff of legend: The desperation air ball by Dereck Whittenburg, the drop-in by Lorenzo Charles just before the buzzer, Valvano running around looking for someone to hug. It lives on in commercials, in an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary, heck almost every NCAA Tourney broadcast shows that game at least for a split second.

That's why Gannon loves this time of year. He's always reminded of one of the best nights of his life. The end of that game lives on in college basketball lore even now 35 years later. In fact a popular commercial for virtual reality running during this year's tournament features guys sitting on their couch watching that game through VR headsets.

"Whenever I see it, it takes me right back to that moment when the buzzer sounded," Gannon said. "All the joy and satisfaction I felt back then thinking that all the hours I put in in my backyard when it was five-below in Chicago were all worth it. And then I feel that way again. I knew it would have legs. I knew it was an upset that people would remember. But I had no idea that this many years later it would still have an impact on people and make them believe that ordinary people can do extraordinary things.

"When that commercial came on this year -- it was literally the first commercial I saw watching games that first Thursday, -- I got all kinds of texts from my teammates and friends, 'Did you just see that?' It was pretty crazy."

When Gannon does flash back to that team, and that night in Albuquerque, and that moment after the final buzzer, it always comes back to Valvano. While the rest of the world came to know the type of man he was as he battled cancer and started the Jimmy V Foundation, players on his teams already knew.

Head coach Jim Valvano of the North Carolina State Wolfpack celebrates with his team after the Wolfpack defeated the Houston Cougars 54-52 in the NCAA men''s basketball championship game at University Arena in Albuquerque, New Mexico.(Photo: Getty Images, Getty Images)

Valvano wanted to win, of course, and came up with unique strategies -- he was an early adopter on fouling to extend the game -- but mostly he cared about the players on his team and the people around him.

Gannon said Valvano would do things like huddle the team together and read a letter from a woman explaining that N.C. State's run helped her husband who was ready to give up in his fight with cancer. But seeing what the team did gave him hope that anything was possible.

Valvano would share those things with the team and it was important to him. It was Valvano's heart that really made the team believe they could win those games, Gannon said.

In other words, with people in the world battling cancer, why are you going to be afraid of Drexler and Olajuwon?

"We knew they were an unbelievably talented team, but we had also played Michael Jordan and beaten them twice, we had played Ralph Sampson and beaten them twice, so we got to the point where we believed if you said 'OK, tomorrow night you have to play the Celtics' we'd say 'Alright we'll find a way to win. We'll figure it out,' " Gannon said. "And that was all Jim Valvano.

"It was him, it was his presence, it was his personality, it was his belief that he instilled in us that we could beat anybody," he said. "So we weren't intimidated. But looking back on it several years later you do shake your head and go, 'Wait, how did we beat them again?' And that feeling exists today."

So it begs the question, while Valvano was running all over the court looking for someone to hug, where was Gannon?

"I was in a melee in the middle of the floor," Gannon said, laughing. "First of all during the play, I was wide open on the wing calling for the ball and didn't quite get it. Wittenberg always told me he wasn't going to pass it to a sophomore. Anyway, it goes in and if you look at the freeze frame of when it went in, I'm already up in the air, probably the highest I ever leaped in my life. And then all of a sudden, I was in the middle of the melee with no memory of where I was or what I was or what I was doing."

Once things calmed down a little, Gannon did find his father in the stands and bring him down to the court to celebrate and jump around.

And Gannon wasn't just on the team, he was a key player. He was the Wolfpack's sixth man. He played 18 minutes in the championship game, scored seven points and had two assists. His most important contribution may have been a drawn charge, though. He drew the third foul in the first half on Drexler, forcing him to miss a lot of minutes in the game.

In fact, Drexler only played 25 minutes that night and took just five shots. There was some controversy about that foul, though. Was it actually a charge or did Gannon pull Drexler down on him.

Terry Gannon (right) teams with Nick Faldo to call the 2017 British Open for the Golf Channel.(Photo: Courtesy of the Golf Channel)

"What controversy? I don't know what you're referring too," Gannon said with a wry smile.

Gannon's wit, delivery and ability to master the nuances of several different sports has helped him carve out a nice career for himself as a broadcaster. He started out doing college basketball, but now fans probably know him most from the Golf Channel or his figure skating coverage, including the recent Pyeongchang Olympics.

If you told the Gannon that drew that charge on Drexler he'd have a career as a broadcaster, he wouldn't have believed you.

"I was always going to coach. And I was a graduate assistant coach for Jim Valvano at NC State and an opportunity came to me," said Gannon, who had no desire to be a broadcaster at the time. "The entity that did ACC basketball at the time came to me and said 'We think you'd be pretty good, would you like to try television?'

"And it was a leap of faith to try and see where it took me," he said. "And then one thing led to another. To make a living I started doing other sports and other gigs. It turned into a contract eventually with ABC and ESPN and now NBC and now it's many years later. I think I was just open to every opportunity that came my way, but this wasn't what I planned on doing. It has been better than anything I could have envisioned."

So while Gannon calls the ANA Inspiration this weekend, and his focus is on Lexi Thompson, Michelle Wie and Lydia Ko, he admits he might peek over at the TV to see how the Final Four games are going.

You can probably guess who he thinks might win it all.

"How could I not love Loyola?" Gannon said. "I grew up in the Chicago area, played summer hoops at Loyola often. Truly, I think Loyola can win their first game against Michigan, and you're not going to get ME to pick against an underdog in the championship game. That's for sure.".

Shad Powers is the sports columnist for The Desert Sun. Reach him at shad.powers@desertsun.com or on Twitter at @shad_powers.